American Dreaming

DJ AM tweeted "New York, new york. Big city of dreams, but everything in new york ain't always what it seems" on the brink of his death. To a New Yorker, it is just another case of a soft person from LA who can't handle the big city. You get tough, or you go home. The protagonist of (500) Days of Summer, Tom Hansen, stumbled upon this same awakening after he fell in love with a girl that did not believe true love existed. Tom learned that fate did not exist and everything in life was pure coincidence. 

New York: The City where people come to realize their dreams. At any given moment there is a group of girls sitting at happy hour laughing over cocktails about how funny it is that adult life is like sex & the city, creating somewhat of an illusion of security. Some people come to the city to live out the dreams they've adapted from their favorite t.v. show, song lyrics, movie etc. Some girls would die to work at Vogue and swear to themselves they'll do anything to get there. Men want to fill the shoes of their fathers and make all the money in the world. The second you let go of this illusion of what you want to become, you are giving up. There is no room for letting go. And in the most competitive city in the world, you had better watch your back and you better be grateful. At any given moment you could lose your job, lose sight of your dreams, and lose that 60" flat screen proudly displayed in your tiny but superbly located West Village apartment. New York epitomizes american dreaming. 

All over the city, Spanish Harlem's James de la Vega markets the spirit of his work with quotes like "Realiza tu Sueno". His graffiti art is a wonderfully ironic mix of encouraging beauty and a pessimistic reality. And sometimes it sort of pisses me off because I am in New York trying to "realize my dreams" here, but the emphasize becomes so redundant that, as Steve Wonder says, you're sort of just livin' for the city

...more to come